My mother’s maternal birth family are the Feldmans’ who hailed from Bessarabia, now in Moldova.  Before 1900, though, it was part of Russia. Because Feldman is such a common name, we do not know much about our ancestors in the old country.  However, I do make some conjectures about who they might be.

Our story basically concentrates on Morris and Esther (Stern) Feldman, my mother’s birth grandparents, and their descendants.

My mother was born to Anna Feldman, daughter of Morris and Esther, and Abe Kessler. His family will be discussed under the Kessler menu.

Use the links under the Feldman menu to read about:

2026 Updates 

Since I first created this section, I have learned many new, interesting facts. Here is a list of what you can expect to find throughout this section:                                                                                                             

  • Feldman Origins
    • clarified the names of people I previously mentioned
  • Stern Origins
    • a new page with details of our Stern / Stein / Sterenson origins
  • Morris Feldman
    • Added transcriptions of various census records. Added info about Galveston and his naturalization papers
  • Morris’ siblings
    • Added life story of Frank, his son Peter, and his wife, Ida
      Added inscription for Peter’s gravestone
  • Dov Ber and Miriam
    • Esther’s grandparents – new page added
  • Herman and Sarah
    • Esther’s parents – new page added
  • Esther Stern Feldman
    • Added info on Esther’s journey to America and added images of her grave
  • Esther’s siblings
    • Added a new page for each of Esther’s known siblings: Abraham, Samuel, and Rose. On Rose’s page I added a little information about her 3 children
    • Eva Sterenzon Feldman – a newly discovered Argentine sibling of Esther’s. As far as I can tell, she is her married name of Feldman is not related to our Feldman branch.
  • Anna Feldman
    • I added a speculative note added about her name being changed from Sadie to Anna
  • Anna’s 8 siblings:
    • Ben – Added the following documents:  WWI Draft card, marriage cert. 1950 Census info.
    • Ida – Added marriage license and one memory of Estelle’s about possible hysterectomy
      • Estelle – new page added
    • Birdie – Added her birth certificate, her marriage certificate, and family pictures from David Ockman’s collection
    • Beattie – Added marriage certificate for Rebecca and Israel, and Israel’s naturalization. Also,, fixed images on the page and requested an image of Izzy’s grave in case Beattie is buried nearby.
    • Sam – Documents added: marriage certificate, draft card, death record.  Also added name and date of death of first wife and name of second wife
    • Rose – Added marriage certificate, gravestones for her and Manny and for Marlene and Gary
    • Peter – Info about his buriel and his grave photo added.  Also more info about his Army Service
    • Rudy – Added image of his gravestone